The ultimate guide to travelling cheap in Kampala on a Boda

In a bid to shoot the trailing middle income status in Uganda, ride-hailing services are the talk of the day with exclusive offers rounding up per month. But then, choosing the best option to juggle with requires you to have a favorable rates card per service. In addition to knowing what each company has to offer could be a hefty task for another day

The talk is real and the ultimate checklist to traveling cheaply in Kampala is one of the sweet pills u can swallow with boda hailing drivers popping up from every corner in branded helmets and jackets. However, we have a simple guide to help you get the best boda pickup near you, juggled through Taxify, Uberboda, Safeboda or Dial Jack

Safety

The Safeboda Co-founder Rick Rapa Thompson demonstrates the use of a helmet for extra safety

Whenever you want to travel cheap and safely around Kampala the first option that comes to your mind is to use a ride hailing app. However, a few riders drive with partial customer gear witnessed by one helmet off some ride hailing services we’ve seen in Kampala. Unlike Safeboda’s tight policies granting a safety sleeze per driver, other apps tend to miss the double gear shot

As much as getting a ride around Kampala is as easy as a smartphone swipe! Safety is key when it comes to the Orange camp order that rules out its competitors hands down as a Safety guarantee service. Additionally, Taxify boda, Uber Boda and Dial Jack all track safety on a daily basis except that Safeboda leads with a slightly bigger margin in a city witnessing tremendous growth with low prices, safety, and convenience beating all non hailing drivers in a safety by price marathon

Price

Although Uber, Dial Jack and Safeboda all gift drivers with free insurance as a motivational factor controlling the low prices by all apps. Taxify boda, on the other hand, has not adhered to this wagon with its prices shaking drivers to the insurance iced camps. However, as riders continue to pose a high demand for boda pickups, the more prices treble down with the current rate card per service favorable enough for a low-cost pick up below

Service

Base fare (Ugx)

Price/Km(Ugx)

Price/Min(Ugx)

Uber boda

500

450

70

Taxify boda

400

400

50

Safeboda

500

400

70

Dial Jack

500

400

60

But then From the downtown based Mwanga II Road to Kawempe, a trip would cost you this much on either Taxify boda, Uber boda or Safeboda

In spite of the seductive trip rate cards published by all boda hailing firms, the actual prices depend on the distance and time while peak hours mean high prices with Uber and Taxify. Well, as witnessed in our basic experiment, safeboda appeared to be charging more as Taxify boda teases the lowest rates

However, the story was different after using Safeboda credit that chopped the total fare by 25% off with no additional high demand multiplications incurred. So, Safeboda credit is the game changer with a discount off per trip unlike the green camps

The Saving mechanism with Safeboda Credit where you’re guarnteed of another 25% off per trip away from the inital 50% off all trips

Payment Modes

All boda hailing services brag with the convenience tagline by their goals, none of these apps features a single payment solution except Dial Jack which is soon rolling out a mobile money option for their customers as per the website FAQ

Availability

With activated zones in Kampala and Entebbe at the moment, all boda hailing apps offer services anywhere around Kampala or Entebbe with a basic flat rate of UGX 90,000 on a Kampala-Entebbe route by Taxify/Uber boda. Additionally, Safeboda recently widened its availability zones covering all Kampala outskirts and finally crossing over to Wakiso teasing a follow me candle with its 8,000 drivers at the moment to DialJack, Taxify, and Uber boda